Rianne Appel-Meulenbroek

In the Western world, mental illness is a growing issue, with the office workplace playing a crucial role. Regular mental health monitoring is essential for both the employer and the employee, as the workforce can be more effectively supported and costs can be reduced. However, until today, a tool to efficiently measure mental health at work seems to be absent. In this study, the Mental Health at Work (MHW) scale is developed, a holistic tool designed to assess both positive and negative mental health indicators across the health-disease continuum amongst office workers. The 18-item scale evaluates ten key indicators-stress, depressive symptoms, burnout, fatigue, well-being, engagement, concentration, mood, sleep quality, and productivity-capturing both short-term and chronic consequences. Factor analysis resulted in six core dimensions: stressful mood, concentration, sleep quality, fatigue, disengagement, and exhaustion, aligning with established health theories, such as the Salutogenic model and the Dual-continuum model of mental health. The MHW scale offers a psychometrically robust scale, suitable for practitioners and researchers to measure/study employee mental health at work.

Strategic alignment between business goals and real estate portfolios gained significance after the COVID-19 pandemic. One aspect of alignment at the workplace level involves optimizing the relationships between organizational structure and office layouts. Previous studies focus only on how layout design is affected by hierarchy, rank, or organizational charts, which provide a limited understanding of the role of organizational structure. This systematic review aims to synthesize variables that operationalize the relationship between office layout and organizational structure, and the nature of the relationships. This review follows Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and starts from Mintzberg’s theory of organizational structures. Content analysis of the 31 papers included empirical studies and identified relevant variables, methods, theories, and relationships between variables. Relationships between layout and structure involved communication issues in office environments, facilitation of work patterns, monitoring employees’ behavior through spatial means, and expressions of power and hierarchy. The informal structure of organizations emerged as a key feature that depends on layout design too. Organizational culture, job characteristics, and organizational flexibility were also concepts that influenced the relationship between structure and layout. This study provides a foundation for further studies of the role of organizational structure in workplace design research. It also enhances understanding of an office layout’s alignment with organizational strategy as a means of enhancing organizational performance. Future studies could examine the integration between the formal and informal structure in office layouts, symbolization of culture, or the interplay between job characteristics and organizational structure in hybrid work settings.

The rise of remote working has highlighted the importance of office spaces that support employees' social well-being. However, there is a lack of explicit knowledge on how to design such spaces. In order to address this gap, this study explored the strategies employed by practitioners in designing social office spaces. In-depth interviews with fifteen experienced interior designers were analysed using means-end chain theory. This revealed the designers' common aim to encourage informal social interactions through creating attractive, spacious, recognizable, and spatially integrated breakout spaces. Additionally, communicating group identity, promoting visibility, and offering a cosy atmosphere aimed to foster a sense of connectedness among employees. These findings not only enable more deliberate design decisions but also serve as valuable insights for less experienced designers. Moreover, the framework of design components, affordances and design objectives that emerged from this study can enhance communication between designers and stakeholders involved in office projects.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine a recent comprehensive corporate real estate (CRE) alignment model which was derived from previous CRE alignment models. This study proposes several modifications and additions based on business and decision-making literature to increase the framework’s multidisciplinary strength and extend its implementation phase. Design/methodology/approach: Literature from various fields is reviewed and “lessons” incorporated into the framework. The business literature review began with corporate strategy theories cited in CRE alignment theory and extended to critiques of those and more recent theories. Likewise, decision-making and implementation both began with material cited in CRE literature and “rippled” out to encompass pertinent material. Findings: The model used provides a robust framework, and this study has identified several areas that would appear to improve that model from a theoretical and practical perspective. Areas of further research are identified that appear to offer opportunities to further develop the framework. Originality/value: Historically, there has been a tendency for new CRE alignment models to be created rather than existing ones being developed further. Here, a framework derived from a meta-study of CRE alignment models is reviewed, and improvements are proposed to further develop CRE alignment theory and its application in practice through the addition of viewpoints from the business field and more focus on the implementation phase of the model.

Until today, most research focussed on the effects of pathogenic workplace demands on employee illness instead of on salutogenic resources on health. Using a stated-choice experiment in a virtual open-plan office, this study identifies key design aspects that enhance psychological and cognitive responses, ultimately improving health outcomes. The study systematically varied six workplace attributes: screens between workstations, occupancy rate, presence of plants, views outside, window-to-wall ratio (WWR), and colour palette. Each attribute predicted perceptions of at least one psychological or cognitive state. Plants had the highest relative importance for all expected responses but views outside with ample daylight, red/warm wall colours, and a low occupancy rate without screens between desks were also important. Low-cost interventions like adding plants, removing screens, and using warm wall colours can contribute to a healthier open-plan office environment. These insights can guide workplace managers to design environments that support employees' mental states and health.Practitioner summary: Salutogenic workplace resources that promote health have been understudied. This study aimed to show which workplace characteristics caused positive psychological and cognitive responses to improve health, using a stated-choice experiment in a virtual office environment. Plants in the office were the most important attribute for employees' psychological and cognitive responses.